Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds pressed the attack Thursday on his opponent’s20-year-old graduate thesis, as polls showed the strategy paying off for the Democratic nominee.
Deeds has built his campaign around casting Republican Bob McDonnell as a social extremist, using as evidence an academic paper McDonnell penned as a graduate student that criticizes gays, cohabitators and working women.
In the second debate of the governor’s race, Deeds stuck to a strategy that until now appeared to be a flop. A Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Wednesday, however, suggests McDonnell’s vast lead is shrinking as the Nov. 3 election approaches.
The survey showed the Republican, a former attorney general, only two points ahead of Deeds, with half the respondents saying McDonnell’s thesis was “at least somewhat” important to how they plan to vote. McDonnell held a nine-point lead in a Rasmussen poll a month ago.
The at-times prickly debate covered a host of well-worn topics, with McDonnell looking to pin divisive federal issues like cap and trade and card check on Deeds, and the Democrat returning several times to the master’s thesis.
The Republican bristled at Deeds’ frequent mention of the document.
“Creigh, there you go again,” McDonnell said, invoking a famous quote by Ronald Reagan during a debate with Jimmy Carter.
Both candidates walked a tightrope during the hourlong Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce debate in Tysons Corner. Deeds distanced himself from national Democrats without directly criticizing President Obama, condemning a cap-and-trade bill in the House as a jobs killer. He called the president “smart” and “innovative,” but refused moderator David Gregory’s invitation to describe himself as an “Obama Democrat.”
“I’m a Creigh Deeds Democrat,” he said.
McDonnell disavowed some of the content of his thesis, but was careful to avoid appearing as though he was retreating from a conservative platform. He said he supports women in the workplace, including his wife and daughter, vowed not to raise taxes, and said local law enforcement should be empowered to fight illegal immigration.
Much of the debate focused on transportation, and how to pay for it. McDonnell, whose plan to raise money for roads includes privatizing liquor sales and installing tolls for motorists entering Virginia at the North Carolina border, accused Deeds of having no plan other than raising taxes.
Deeds said the revenue streams in McDonnell’s transportation proposal would rob education funding and already have been rejected by the state legislature.
The Democrat said he wouldn’t raise taxes, but later told reporters “we’re going to have to raise money on transportation.”
